‘Escape From New York’ Is Getting a Remake From ‘Saw’ Co-Creator Leigh Whannell

The Hollywood Reporter says that Leigh Whannell, co-creator of the Saw franchise, and director of movies like Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3, has been hired to write the script for a remake of the John Carpenter sci-fi classic, originally released in 1981, about a mercenary named Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell). The tough and gruff Snake is forced to run a suicide mission for the U.S. government in the distant future year of (gulp) 1997. Carpenter and Russell eventually made a sequel, Escape From L.A., in 1996, but the character has mostly been dormant since then.

Whannell, however, is kickstarting Escape with a new vision for the project that sources say will retain elements of the original but bring new ideas to the table. One of Whannell's goals is to avoid the bloated tentpole remake path that afflicted the reboots of other 1980s-era movies such as Robocop and Total Recall.

The last time a potential Escape From New York movie was in the news was two years ago, when Robert Rodriguez was involved in the project. Whannell also just signed on to make a new version of The Invisible Man for Universal. So he’s got his hands full remaking the classics for the next few years.